(Pedro) believes he is ready to rejoin the starting rotation, but has agreed to have three workouts, including one start in a minor league game, before he makes that move.

...The schedule the Mets put in place has Martinez - the three-time Cy Young Award winner who is recovering from a strained left hamstring suffered in his first start of the season - returning to pitch for the team in San Francisco against the Giants during the series that runs June 2-4.

If Pedro's coming back next week, then the Mets need to clear a rotation spot for him.

And just like that - Claudio Vargas and Mike Pelfrey are making their respective cases to stay in the Majors. So far, the decision favors Vargas, who had a solid outing yesterday on 3 days' rest and provided relief for a bullpen that pitched extra innings Friday. Vargas notched his first win as a Met yesterday, but has three outings as a Met and one of those was by no means a quality outing. That bad outing may have been a blip, or Vargas might just be riding a hot streak the way Nelson Figueroa did for his first few outings before falling back to Earth.

With Pelfrey, however, all we know is that we really know nothing. He flirts with a no-hitter in one outing and gets shelled the next. He's also coming off a lousy outing against the Braves and generally has not shown enough control of any secondary pitches to inspire confidence in the masses. Big Pelf is young and has provided no reason whatsoever to give up on him. But he looks more and more like he still has some growing up to do, and it's better to do that in Triple-A New Orleans where he can't worry the Mets every 5th outing. And Pelfrey has options left, meaning the Mets can demote him without fear of waivers or his release.

Pelfrey can go a long way today to put the pressure back on Vargas. He's in a position to succeed - any type of sinking motion on your pitches in Coors Field is always to your advantage, and that's something Pelfrey can do with his fastball. But will he?*

Big Pelf will have to, because the score's currently 1-0 Vargas and there's little chance that Pelfrey can stay much longer without his competition finding their way to the DL.

Then again, considering how many Mets are currently on the Disabled List, it's anyone's race.

*Correction: For the life of me, I thought Pelfrey was today's starter. It was really John Maine. I don't really regret the error, if only because the Mets bats lost today's game and not Maine.